Nagoya

IT turned out we DID go to Nagoya 2 days ago! We went to Nagoya castle with Keiko, a former Conversa person...after seeing about 4 floors starting from the top, guards suddenly came from nowhere saying, Go!　Go now! It:s closed! Typhoon! So...Wednesday everything, including the castle, shut early. Of course the Japanese will work until the last moment and then all rush to get home. The 2 appointmnets we had Wed. were cancelled so we had a good time sloshing in the rain and seeing the scenery all wet.My feet were SOAKED.
After riding the train back to Gifu another Keiko (a HSJ mom) who is hosting the guy named Andy (guy with the long red beard, one of Gerry's friends) brought us to the spa. Very relaxing! The US custom in a spa is kind of mixed with suits on. As you know a Japanese spa is separate with clothes off. There are inside and outside sections for both the men's and women's side. Because of the typhoon there weren' so many people there but Andy said there were 3 guys sitting in the outside section of the men:s part so he just bathed under the typhoon as well. I stayed in the inside part of the women:s side. There:s a little part of the spa that sends an electric current through your body. Some say it's good for your health. I touched it and no thanks...not for me...but I did like the hot jets...at first I felt a little self conscious thinking I'd look like a fat white pig but there were actually fatter women than I and even if there weren't it was soon relaxing. Who am I trying to impress? The women there are from 3 to 90. No one's embarrassed about anything. After that we had dinner at MR. and MRs. Wako's house. Very yummy. Wako san cooked it all. It was an amazing array of vegetables, meats, nut mizo soup, other mizo soups...I was bursting at the seams. The food is healthy here but you still feel stuffed. I'm so impressed with the healthy life the elderly have here. Active and out and vibrant. Obesity is not a problem with 999/1000 of the people here.

Thursday I went to Nagoya- Yoshimasa drove me- to see my contact Iwao's English class. Sorry to say some of the college kids are starting to act very inattentive, and these were the English majors. First year. Some straggled in late, some did their hair in class, etc. It looked like a US high school language class. Except for the state-of-the-art computers at each desk. Felt bad for such a skilled sensei such as Shijosan.He says he:s ready to retire and tired of the way the kids are acting. He'd fail half of them, he said, if he could, but this university doesn't kick people out. It's tuition. But some of the class did extremely well. Very impressive. Then on to a lunch with the English club. They all introduced themselves to me and wanted to practice English. Pleasant young people. (Even the goofoffs in the first class were pleasant when I spoke with them one-on-one). You think Japanese are stiff and studious and all work no play...you may be thinking of the Japanese students in the states, who are already of that quality. I then went to another English class by another professor. Very good class. Using computer technolgy to do some of it. Incorporates music and has lessons online. And set up people with penpals. Will show pix. Then Mr. Shinjo and I met up with Gerry and his old pal Mr. Fujikaka who is an old professor and kind of eccentric and very opinionated.　In Mr. Shinjo's office, which was packed with shelves and shelves of books, Shinjosan and Fujikakasan got into the debate over learned vs. acquired linguistics. Gerry and I let those 2 go at it. That's what professors do. :) This was a debate that lasted probably 1.5 hours. Picture will accompany more detailed narration of events. We then went to a steak house (Mr. Fujikaka went home despite the invitation to come. He was tired.) Courtesy of Mr. Shinjo we had a great steak dinner and salad bar. And nice conversation. Though we really didn't solve the problem Gerry kept posing, How can we motivate people to learn English? Gerry always wants to find the magic key. He's an idea person. He says most of his ideas fail...but it only takes one successful one. But the truth of it is, how CAN we convince people they need to learn English or any language for that matter if they really ARE never going to use it? If they get motivated later they WILL learn it. If someone is not motivated it just isn't going to happen. Motivation usually comes from emotional or tangible rewards of some kind. So if they're not marring an English speaker (nor have the desire to) or getting a job that requires English, if they never travel outside of Japan or have the desire to, well why SHOULD they? Really some people want to do it and some don't. Focus on those who want to. Those who don't want to do something else that WE don't want to do. Right? It's the same issue in the US and every other place where people don't want to learn another language. Some have an innate lack of skill. Some have, for whatever reason, lack of interest. I am one who is motivated. I like learning Japanese. I'm butchering this language all over the place and the Japanese still applaud me for the little I learn. They are amazing and hospitable and very kind to gaijin like me.
After that we all went to karaoke. Fun time! Lots of good songs available. Everyone was drinking so I had to take a taxi back to the Sasagawas. I could tell it was a bar that catered to the gaijin. So there were other gaijin there too that I didn:t know. Mostly American guys with their pretty Japanese girlfriends. Claudio (Nicaraguan) is glad to have a Spanish-speaker (me) to speak with. He asked where I was born (Iowa), what origin are my parents (German American), etc. I told him I didn:t grow up in a Spanish-speaking family. HE said well you don:t have an accent in Spanish (very flattering to hear that). It:s been flattering lately in Cincinnati when little Guatemalan or Mexican kids ask me Where did you learn English?
Today was the most amazing yet. I went with a bunch of other gaijin (many of them hop/step/jump school employees to 2 kindgergarten schools. They were the cutest little angels EVER! We gaijin were from all over- US, England, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Ivory Coast, Spain, Italy, and Nicaragua. With only an exception or two all of them are married to Japanese people. So I asked one of them, If you marry a Japanese person and come live here, is teaching English/French/Italian/German/Spanish the only option for employment? Not that it:s a bad option because they all enjoy it. But the person (woman from Spain) I asked said it's not the only one but as far as she could tell the best option if you don't speak Japanese. And there are visa issues. The guy from the Cote d'ivoire said he's had no end to visa problems. I will post the children's pix with more detailed narrative later. Today's a gorgeous day. Spectacular. Nice and warm. I'm here at HSJ on their computer. More later!